282 
KERBELA 
and Persia fly thither in flocks ; and amongst the fugitives from 
the latter country, are several khans of too sensible consciences 
to venture giving account of their misdeeds within grasp of their 
king. It was near this town, then an inconsiderable village, 
that the terrible battle was fought which decided the fate of the 
Caliph Ali; and also that of his son, whose tomb has “ enlarged 
its borders,” and rendered the place so illustrious. Notwith¬ 
standing the extensive circuit and strength of its walls, it has 
often, since, suffered by the violence of war; and several times 
been plundered by certain sects of the Arabs, who did not spare 
the treasures of its tombs. It is still, however, a flourishing 
town ; and deliciously situated amongst gardens and groves, 
which border one of the finest canals now existing in the conn- 
try. This noble work, supposed to have been begun on the 
foundation of one of the very old flood-gates of the ancient 
empire, had various restorers, but Hassan Pasha was the first to 
plan its present grand scale, leaving it to be finally effected by 
Mirza Ashreff, during the reign of Shah Thamas the last king 
of the Sefi race. That monarch’s murderer, Nadir Shah, gilded 
the cupola over the tomb of the Imaun Hossein. 
My Kerbelite pilgrims, and those returned with them, brought 
very alarming accounts of the numerous bands of Arabs ; who, 
emboldened by the late successes, were scouring the country in 
all directions, between Bagdad and the south-western parts of 
the pashalick. This information was far from being exaggerated ; 
and I only awaited the marching of the pasha’s troops that 
way, to commence my movements in the same quarter, towards 
the fallen towers of Babylon. His highness’s army had been 
some little time encamped on the plain of Bagdad, near the 
great burying-ground on the western shore of the Tigris ; and 
was daily expected to proceed to the neighbourhood of Hillah (a 
